Not sure if this was posted but it seems like good news. Reported from the PensBlog.

Along with the Penguins Pre-season television schedule, ROOT SPORTS also announced today the addition of award winning hockey director, John Szpala, as the new Director of Penguins broadcasts on ROOT SPORTS starting this fall. Before coming to Pittsburgh, Szpala, a native of Brantford, Ontario, spent 16 years directing Hockey Night in Canada, as well as directing the Ottawa Senators games on Rogers Sportsnet. Combined with his previous directing experience and his involvement directing both Men’s and Women’s Hockey during the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, Szpala brings an impressive 32 years of directing experience to ROOT SPORTS.

Here's what I don't get, John Szpala was with CBC for 16 years. He did the Sens games for Rogers. He also did the 2006 and 2010 Olympics.

Why did he come to Pittsburgh? The quality fo production for ROOT was so bad that even any change would have made it better including minkeys flipping random switches since I'm sure they would have caught more face offs coming back from break than what we saw last year. This guy's resume is great. Did the Pensguins see really how bad things were and wanted to get the best in the business?

Here's a cool article from a Habs-Bruins game about what a director does and the one in question is John Szpala:

beLIEve wrote:Hopefully this means they will finally zoom out during live play. The constant oscillating between tight and super-tight shot since they've moved to CEC has literally been making me ill.

I've seen some games from the Senators feed and they use a nice wide shot where you can see the entire offensive zone. I hope he's bringing this angle along with him.

HDNet did hockey games a few years ago. from a technical standpoint, best broadcasts i've ever seen. great, wide camera angle and minimalist announcing. they even long had stretches where they would just cut the announcers and pipe in nothing but crowd noise and on-ice sounds. amazing.

DelPen wrote:Here's what I don't get, John Szpala was with CBC for 16 years. He did the Sens games for Rogers. He also did the 2006 and 2010 Olympics.

Why did he come to Pittsburgh? The quality fo production for ROOT was so bad that even any change would have made it better including minkeys flipping random switches since I'm sure they would have caught more face offs coming back from break than what we saw last year. This guy's resume is great. Did the Pensguins see really how bad things were and wanted to get the best in the business?

Here's a cool article from a Habs-Bruins game about what a director does and the one in question is John Szpala:

shmenguin wrote:HDNet did hockey games a few years ago. from a technical standpoint, best broadcasts i've ever seen. great, wide camera angle and minimalist announcing. they even long had stretches where they would just cut the announcers and pipe in nothing but crowd noise and on-ice sounds. amazing.

That was the pinnacle of hockey on TV in my opinion. I caught one of the Sharks home games on there. Those cameras are already nice and high to begin with. Add in everything else you mentioned, and I agree, best broadcasts ever.

DelPen wrote:Here's what I don't get, John Szpala was with CBC for 16 years. He did the Sens games for Rogers. He also did the 2006 and 2010 Olympics.

Why did he come to Pittsburgh? The quality fo production for ROOT was so bad that even any change would have made it better including minkeys flipping random switches since I'm sure they would have caught more face offs coming back from break than what we saw last year. This guy's resume is great. Did the Pensguins see really how bad things were and wanted to get the best in the business?

Here's a cool article from a Habs-Bruins game about what a director does and the one in question is John Szpala:

Well this is all on Root. They pay the pens for the rights. But if thy gave this guy an offer he couldn't refuse it's their money.

My best guess is since they are partners in a sense the pens may have asked for upgrades but root got pressure from viewers and advertisers to put a better product out there.

But rest assured his is root. I'm sure thy listen to the lens suggestions but are really in control and are the one who pay the money. They do give he pens how many millions per year.

CBC is a federally funded media/radio/tv channel/website in Canada. There are cuts in government and therefore the CBC. Its hard times all over. Perhaps Mr. Szpala sees the writing on the wall. Plus, the Pens organization and fan base are the most exciting US product a producer could go to.

shmenguin wrote:HDNet did hockey games a few years ago. from a technical standpoint, best broadcasts i've ever seen. great, wide camera angle and minimalist announcing. they even long had stretches where they would just cut the announcers and pipe in nothing but crowd noise and on-ice sounds. amazing.

That was the pinnacle of hockey on TV in my opinion. I caught one of the Sharks home games on there. Those cameras are already nice and high to begin with. Add in everything else you mentioned, and I agree, best broadcasts ever.

it really felt like you were there, watching it live. i've never seen a sports broadcast pull that off.

beLIEve wrote:Hopefully this means they will finally zoom out during live play. The constant oscillating between tight and super-tight shot since they've moved to CEC has literally been making me ill.

I've seen some games from the Senators feed and they use a nice wide shot where you can see the entire offensive zone. I hope he's bringing this angle along with him.

HDNet did hockey games a few years ago. from a technical standpoint, best broadcasts i've ever seen. great, wide camera angle and minimalist announcing. they even long had stretches where they would just cut the announcers and pipe in nothing but crowd noise and on-ice sounds. amazing.

I concur with this. HDnet had the most amazing HD broadcasts for hockey.

Their advantage was they didn't need to cater to the SD feeds like most others do. Like it or not, SD is still well alive. Those nice wide camera views in 16:9 don't look so great when simulcasted in 4:3 SD.

shmenguin wrote:HDNet did hockey games a few years ago. from a technical standpoint, best broadcasts i've ever seen. great, wide camera angle and minimalist announcing. they even long had stretches where they would just cut the announcers and pipe in nothing but crowd noise and on-ice sounds. amazing.

That was the pinnacle of hockey on TV in my opinion. I caught one of the Sharks home games on there. Those cameras are already nice and high to begin with. Add in everything else you mentioned, and I agree, best broadcasts ever.

it really felt like you were there, watching it live. i've never seen a sports broadcast pull that off.

yeah i used to love how in the middle of a period they would always have a 5 minute or so sounds of the game where the announcers shut up and all you could hear were sounds from the ice.

the main reason why it was so much better as well is it was shot specifically for 16:9 televisions. most games still are not shot for hd today.

i'm glad to see root is finally maybe doing more than just cashing checks with their good ratings. there broadcasts have been a complete and utter joke for the past few years this should on paper improve things immensely if this guy is actually allowed to do his job correctly.

I am surprised that DirecTV, owner of ROOT, allowed it to be so poor last year. DirecTV is all about quality. Penguins are the only hockey on all 4 ROOT chanels. Not sure if the people from Fox Sports stayed but if not that explains a lot.

Is there anyone besides me that would like to see the main center-ice cameras at CEC shooting from a higher angle? It would require removing a few seats from the front row of the center section of the upper bowl and placing the cameras there. To me a higher angle is better because you are looking more down on the players rather than through the players, so the ice looks bigger. San Jose uses a high angle. Check out some TV action from San Jose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzz29TdMhIQ. It's pretty much like the old camera angle at Mellon Arena.

Bathgate wrote:Is there anyone besides me that would like to see the main center-ice cameras at CEC shooting from a higher angle? It would require removing a few seats from the front row of the center section of the upper bowl and placing the cameras there. To me a higher angle is better because you are looking more down on the players rather than through the players, so the ice looks bigger. San Jose uses a high angle. Check out some TV action from San Jose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzz29TdMhIQ. It's pretty much like the old camera angle at Mellon Arena.

Agree 100%. The cameraman in this particular example ruins it a little with his constant zooming in and out, but when zoomed out, you can clearly see that HP Pavillion has the best camera placement in the league.

On a side note, Detroit actually has some pretty decent cameras at the Joe, but they seldom use them. Only when people stand up in front of the current cameras do they go to the higher angle. I always yell at the TV "why don't they use these all the time!", as if someone can hear me